THREE PERSONAL WORDS

 

Last week, I had the great pleasure of speaking at Longwood University to approximately 40 seniors who were getting ready to leave campus to do their student teaching.  They were going out to elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools in order to get practical experience in the art of teaching.  I can only imagine how tense and excited they must all have been.  It has to feel like stepping off into the unknown.

They had meetings all morning followed by a nice lunch.  I was asked to be the after-lunch speaker.  That was truly a pleasure and an honor.

I began by telling them that I was going to give my speech but, first, I wanted to start with a three-word message that came directly from my heart personally to them. 

I had three words that I wanted them to hear independent of the speech.  Those words were personally from me.

However, before I unveil those three words here on my blog, I have a bit of a different story to convey first.

**

This morning I received an email from a student who was in one of my classes here at the University of Richmond a few years ago.  He had graduated and, from what he told me, seemed to have created a successful career for himself.  The message that he wanted to tell me this morning was, “Looking back on those classes, I developed the confidence to be okay with giving an answer that may be wrong. We were all learning at the time.”

What a nice story:  his career was going well and he had developed confidence and knowledge in my class.  Confidence and knowledge – hard to ask for a better outcome.

What made this story especially interesting to me was that (and I checked this to be sure my memory was accurate), he finished the semester with the lowest overall average in my class that semester.  Lowest.  Bottom.  His test grades were consistently poor.  If you looked at just my grade book, you would have viewed this as a loss for me and a loss for him.  A wasted class.  But clearly, it wasn’t. 

His email reminded me of some advice I gave the student-teachers at Longwood:  Don’t become so enamored of your A students.  Yes, we all love the students who make 100.  They make our jobs easier.  We swell with pride when a student makes an A+.  However, from my experience, many (if not most) of the A students really do not need much from us.  They often know how to study, how to do the difficult thinking that is needed, and how to be efficient test takers.  They are well formed as students before they get to us. 

Where we can provide the most benefit is with the other students.  The ones who struggle.  The ones who don’t have the strong background needed to do well from the start.  The ones who can fall through the cracks if we are not careful.

As a teacher, what should make your heart sing?  What should you look for that will bring a smile to your lips.   I am always most pleased with the students who truly try.  That sentence sums up a lot of my teaching.  Those students take on the challenge and put in the work even if the grades are not great.  However, it is not just putting in a lot of time.  To a certain extent, I think the amount of time spent studying is a bit overrated. 

When I use the word “try,” I am thinking of students who break down the topic and work to ascertain how to view the material logically and how to come to an understanding of the subject matter.  There is a significant part of learning that is not tied to a certain high grade.  I liked the last line from my former student, “We were all learning at the time.”

I love it when students tell me that I helped them to learn to think and to learn how to learn in a more efficient manner.    

So, as you begin yet another semester as a teacher, never become too enamored of your A students.  You might be adding only a little real benefit to their academic journeys.  Look past that group to the students who struggle, for whatever reason.  How can you encourage those students to try (more and better)?  How can you add value to their learning, a value that might prove to be what they really need in order to succeed going forward? 

If a student simply will not try, there is little that you or I or any other teacher can do for them.  However, if a student is pushing themselves to learn and understand, the assistance you provide might make a world of difference in their lives even if they do wind up with the lowest grade in class. 

Here is my point:  Most of us got into the teaching profession in hopes of changing lives.  Where that happens is most often not with the A students.  They will certainly make you feel good but, as you look back over the years, the benefit you truly add is most likely to be with the students who struggle but never give up and keep pushing themselves from the first day to the last.

**

Okay, what were the three personal words that I told to the student-teachers at Longwood even before I began my speech?

I ENVY YOU!!

I think I repeated those words several times over and over like a mantra.

After 50 years in the classroom, my career is beginning to wind down no matter how hard I fight the urge.   Those students were standing at the doorway of a new teaching career.  Quite honestly, it will not work for all of them.  Some will be teaching the wrong grade or wind up in difficult environments.  Nevertheless, many of them are going to be changing lots of lives for many years.  That is for certain.  What a wonderful future they have in front of them.

They will be under paid.

They will be vastly under appreciated.

They will work way too hard.

I can promise them all of that. 

But, at some point, down the road, they will look back and say, “I have been a teacher.  I have helped my students learn—learn to work and learn to think.  I have helped to change lives.”

That is not a bad way to spend a career.